Aeroflot expects positive financial results for 2024, allows for dividend payments

VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 4 (Interfax) - Aeroflot Group expects a positive financial result in 2024, CEO Sergei Alexandrovsky told journalists at the Eastern Economic Forum 2024.

"We plan to be in positive territory in 2024. The groundwork that we have laid over the past six months allows us to talk about this," Alexandrovsky said in response to the relevant question.

Moreover, Alexandrovsky has not ruled out that Aeroflot could return to dividend payments by the end of the current year.

"The board of directors will reach the decision on payment based on the results of 2024. There is such a possibility," Alexandrovsky said, noting that, "Dividends are a very positive sign for the market, especially for shareholders and our main shareholder, the government, with 73.8% of the shares."

"However, we will look once again at the financial results and our capital investment plan, which currently accounts for a very high share. Everything that we have earned this year is owing to increased efficiency and control over operating expenses, without subsidies and additional sources," Alexandrovsky said.

Aeroflot swung to net profit of 41.2 billion rubles to International Financial Reporting Standards in Q2 2024 from a net loss of 55.5 billion rubles in Q2 2023, and generated net profit of 42.3 billion rubles in H1 2024 against a loss of 102 billion rubles. Profit adjusted for "paper" effects reached 20.5 billion rubles in the second quarter against an adjusted loss of 6.8 billion rubles the previous year, and 27 billion rubles in the first half of the year versus an adjusted loss of 20.1 billion rubles the previous year.

Aeroflot last paid dividends for 2018, allocating 2.6877 rubles per share, totaling 2.857 billion rubles, or 50% of net profit to IFRS. Aeroflot plans to return to the matter of paying out dividends once "sustainable" net profit has been achieved, Andrei Napolnov, Aeroflot's director of investor relations and capital markets, said at the beginning of February.

Aeroflot is Russia's largest aviation group that unites the flagship airline of the same name and Pobeda Airlines and Rossiya Airlines. The government controls 73.8% of Aeroflot's shares, 1.2% are quasi-treasury shares, company management holds 0.0001%, and 25% of the shares are in free float on the Moscow Exchange.